Why Lillian Thomas Pratt was so passionate about the treasures made for the Russian imperial family by the House of Fabergé isn't hard to imagine.

The intoxicating combination of luxury, royalty and tragedy embodied in the jeweler's celebrated work has captured many ardent admirers over the years, including such wealthy and well-advised collectors as Marjorie Merriweather Post — the founder of General Foods — and the late publisherMalcolm Forbes.

Far more difficult to determine is how the reclusive and largely self-guided Fredericksburg woman —making her way through a field famously muddied by falsehoods and fakes — amassed in a few short years America's most important collection of Fabergé.

But with the completion of a pioneering scholarly study — and the debut of a landmark show at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts this weekend — many of the questions surrounding this oft-doubted feat of connoisseurship have been silenced.

Led by the renowned Géza von Habsburg, more than 40 experts examined and re-examined every one of 328 objects acquired by Pratt in the 1930s and '40s — plus 53 others acquired by the museum since receiving the collection from her estate in 1947.

They scoured archives in America and Europe for new documentary evidence. They scrutinized the original containers in which the objects had been boxed, searching for clues about their attributions.

What they found were 20 outright forgeries and 100 misattributions, most of them accomplished works by other Russian masters.

They also confirmed the identities of some 200 works by Fabergé, including all of Pratt's famous Imperial Easter eggs and an unexpected assortment of objects previously linked to other sources.

"When you consider what she was able to do without the aid of modern tools and scholarship, it's amazing. There was no Fabergé scholarship back then," says VMFA curator Mitchell Merling, who coordinated the 2-year project behind "Fabergé Revealed."

"She assembled a magnificent collection of Fabergé — and she did so much of it on pure instinct."

The descendent of French Huguenot immigrants, Fabergé made his first mark in the 1880s, when he combined his ingenuity and skill with a profitable new connection to the imperial family to transform what had been a conventional jewelry business.

Grabbing the eye of Empress Maria Feodorovna with his striking reproductions of Russian archaeological treasures, Fabergé was named Supplier by Special Appointment to the Imperial Court in 1885. Not long afterward he produced his first Imperial Easter egg for Tsar Alexander III, whose pleasure over the success of this gift for his wife led to an increasingly large and lucrative stream of high-profile commissions.

Over the following 30 years, Fabergé produced more than 150,000 objects for the Romanov court, enabling him to employ 500 highly skilled craftsmen and expand his St. Petersburg firm with branches in Moscow, Kiev and Odessa as well as London.

By 1900, his name was synonymous with sumptuous materials and prize-winning design, drawing well-to-do clients from America as well as royalty and nobility across Europe.

"The craftsmanship is just so impeccable — especially when you examine his firm's work on a minute scale," Merling says.

"One of the things Fabergé always said was that he wasn't interested in any material for its intrinsic, monetary value but rather for its artistic possibilities — and you can just eat these works up by taking in all the details."

With more than 500 objects, "Fabergé Revealed" showcases every part of the VMFA collection, including many works that have never been publicly displayed.

It also features scores of examples from three other prominent American collections, including such internationally celebrated masterpieces as the "Imperial Napoleonic Easter Egg" and "Lilies of the Valley Basket" from the Matilda Geddings Gray Foundation Collection, the "Royal Tiara" and "Imperial Fire-Screen Frame" from the Arthur and Dorothy McFerrin Foundation Collection and the "Coiling Serpent Paperweight" from the Hodges Family Collection.

By far the greatest number of works, however, can be found in the seemingly endless rows of picture frames, cigarette cases, snuff boxes and other personal tokens and gifts that the members of the Imperial court exchanged among each other as well as with their favorites.

Despite their quantity, no two examples are alike — even among such seemingly insignificant objects as parasol and cane handles.

"What's amazing about the exhibit is the sheer variety of the objects and the endless inventiveness of Fabergé," Merling says.

"The Russian court surrounded themselves with these objects. They fanned themselves with his fans. They looked at themselves in his frames. They prayed to his saints and took snuff and cigarettes from his cases. Yet he never made the same object twice."

Among the project's great discoveries was the hidden story of a star-shaped frame originally described as a furnishing from the Alexander Palace.

Yet so important was this frame and its picture of the tsar's second daughter that an inventory compiled after the Communists executed the Romanovs in 1918 recently revealed that the imperial family took it with them to their deaths in Siberia.

Such a link would have made the simple enamel and pearl frame all the more precious to Pratt, who was fascinated by Fabergé's role in the Romanovs' lives.

It also shows how her remarkable passion ultimately led to a treasure embraced by the family in their darkest moment.

"This is truly one of the great Fabergé collections in the world," Merling says.

"She really did very well."

Want to go?

"Fabergé Revealed"

Where: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 200 N. Boulevard,Richmond

When: Through Oct. 2

Cost: $15 adults, $12 students

Info: 804-340-1400/www.vmfa.museum

Online: Go to dailypress.com/vmfafaberge to see pictures and a video from the exhibit